Pope's No.2 claims sex scandal in the church is linked to homosexuality not priestly celibacy

The Vatican's second-in-command has linked child sex abuse by priests to homosexuality.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone denied celibacy was to blame for the sex scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church.

Instead, homosexuality and paedophilia were inextricably linked, the Vatican's Secretary of State declared.

His comments embroiled the Vatican in another controversy yesterday, with gay rights campaigners saying there was no connection between the two.

Cardinal Bertone made his comments at a press conference in Chile in response to a question about a paedophile priest who had sex with girls, including one who became pregnant. The Chilean priest was eventually jailed for 12 years.

The cardinal said: 'Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and paedophilia.

'But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and paedophilia. That is true. That is the problem.'

Last night gay activist Peter Tatchell, spokesman for the Protest the Pope group, reacted with anger.

'The Vatican is trying to deflect attention from the sex crimes of Catholic clergy by blaming gay people,' he said. 'This is really sick.

'The truth is that priests and bishops abused girls and boys alike. There is absolutely no connection whatsoever between paedophilia and loving, consenting adult gay relationships.

'It shows the depths of dishonesty and homophobia that infects the Vatican at the highest level. The Catholic leadership is morally bankrupt.'

Mr Tatchell said he had collected 12,000 signatures on a petition on the Downing Street website against Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Britain in September.

Last night there was no direct response to Cardinal Bertone's comments from the Vatican.

But the Pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, referred the Daily Mail to an interview given last month by Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's chief investigator in paedophile cases.

In the interview he said: 'We can say that about 60 per cent of the (3000) cases (involving clergy being investigated) chiefly involved sexual attraction towards adolescents of the same sex, another 30 per cent involved heterosexual relations, and the remaining 10 per cent were cases of paedophilia in the true sense of the term; that is, based on sexual attraction towards prepubescent children.'

It has also emerged that 'very offensive' sexual graffiti had been daubed on the house where the Pope was born in Bavaria.

The Catholic Church has been beset by a series of scandals as child abuse allegedly carried out by priests has come to light after being covered up for decades.

Claims of paedophilia have emerged in Ireland, the U.S., Germany, Austria, Holland, Switzerland and Norway.